For the damned | ✓

12

JAMES DID KNOW HER well, that she had to admit. As she walked towards the planetarium she couldn't hide her excitement, humming softly to herself. He had offered to pick her up multiple times, concern clearly showing after the incident with the stranger, but she had told him not to fret too much. Though she had no idea who the redhead had been, she doubted worrying about it would do much. He had said he would see her soon, so she would figure out what to do then.

"Delilah, over here!"

She smiled as she locked eyes with James, who had been leaning beside the entrance.

"Have you been waiting for long?" she said.

"No," he reassured her, smoothing out non-existent wrinkles in his navy sweater," I just got here."

"Ah, young love," an old man floating by chuckled," I remember when we used to date, Paola, I showed up an hour early as well."

"At least you didn't have to wait long for us to go together," Paola smiled, her arm hooked through his, hair gray but eyes alive.

Normally she would have asked them if they needed help, but she didn't want the Reaper to think that she was crossing his boundaries again if he accidentally found them together. So instead she walked in with James, unable to suppress her smile as they entered a hallway with a ceiling made of stars.

"How beautiful," she said.

"Yeah," James said, glancing at her," it truly is."

He scraped his throat, quickly speaking again as he pointed up.

"Anyway," he said," I researched this place last night, because you know I can't go anywhere unprepared, so be ready for loads of unnecessary info."

"That tour guide got so angry at you last time," she chuckled, remembering the moment fondly as James took over the museum tour like he was doing a presentation.

"Don't blame the player, blame the game," James grinned. She glanced at him amusedly and he continued, a sheepish smile on his face. "Not that I really know what that means, to be honest. Jesus, I'm feeling like an old man in college, it sometimes sounds like they're speaking another language."

"Come on now," she said, nudging him playfully with her shoulder," you're already fluent in four languages, what's one more?"

"You can't compare Swahili to this," James said with a shake of his head," one of my classmates told me he was going to take molly and I asked where he was planning to take her."

Delilah laughed, roses blooming on his cheeks as he ran a hand through his hair, embarrassed.

"Who calls drugs molly anyway?" he said," weren't there other names left? What about those poor girls out there who are actually called Molly?"

They rounded the corner towards a large room filled with seats and shadows, the galaxy projected above and around them, the only sound there amazed whispers and soft chuckles.

"I would be delighted to find out there is a drug named after me," she said as they took a seat in the last row," but I suppose the name Delilah wouldn't sound that nice for one."

"What about Lilah?"

She knew no one had said the words out loud, but she heard them still in her mind, the voice curling around her mind like a snake. For a moment she wasn't in the planetarium anymore, but on top of a tower, leaning against the gray stones as she watched the planets slowly move in the sky. When she reached out her hand, one of them disappeared from the jet black air, a smaller version floating above her palm instead, turning like it was a virtual apparition.